Authorization

When interacting with Incus over the Unix socket, members of the incus-admin group will have full access to the Incus API. Those who are only members of the incus group will instead be restricted to a single project tied to their user.

When interacting with Incus over the network (see How to expose Incus to the network for instructions), it is possible to further authenticate and restrict user access. There are two supported authorization methods:

TLS authorization

Incus natively supports restricting Trusted TLS clients to one or more projects. When a client certificate is restricted, the client will also be prevented from performing global configuration changes or altering the configuration (limits, restrictions) of the projects it’s allowed access to.

To restrict access, use incus config trust edit <fingerprint>. Set the restricted key to true and specify a list of projects to restrict the client to. If the list of projects is empty, the client will not be allowed access to any of them.

This authorization method is always used if a client authenticates with TLS, regardless of whether another authorization method is configured.

Open Fine-Grained Authorization (OpenFGA)

Incus supports integrating with OpenFGA. This authorization method is highly granular. For example, it can be used to restrict user access to a single instance.

To use OpenFGA for authorization, you must configure and run an OpenFGA server yourself. To enable this authorization method in Incus, set the openfga.* server configuration options. Incus will connect to the OpenFGA server, write the OpenFGA model, and query this server for authorization for all subsequent requests.

OpenFGA model

With OpenFGA, access to a particular API resource is determined by the user’s relationship to it. These relationships are determined by an OpenFGA authorization model. The Incus OpenFGA authorization model describes API resources in terms of their relationship to other resources, and a relationship a user or group might have with that resource. Some convenient relations have also been built into the model:

  • server -> admin: Full access to Incus.

  • server -> operator: Full access to Incus, without edit access on server configuration, certificates, or storage pools.

  • server -> viewer: Can view all server level configuration but cannot edit. Cannot view projects or their contents.

  • project -> manager: Full access to a single project, including edit access.

  • project -> operator: Full access to a single project, without edit access.

  • project -> viewer: View access for a single project.

  • instance -> manager: Full access to a single instance, including edit access.

  • instance -> operator: Full access to a single instance, without edit access.

  • instance -> user: View access to a single instance, plus permissions for exec, console, and file APIs.

  • instance -> viewer: View access to a single instance.

Important

Users that you do not trust with root access to the host should not be granted the following relations:

  • server -> admin

  • server -> operator

  • server -> can_edit

  • server -> can_create_storage_pools

  • server -> can_create_projects

  • server -> can_create_certificates

  • certificate -> can_edit

  • storage_pool -> can_edit

  • project -> manager

The remaining relations may be granted. However, you must apply appropriate Project restrictions.

The full Incus OpenFGA authorization model is defined in internal/server/auth/driver_openfga_model.openfga:

model
  schema 1.1
type user

type group
  relations
    define member: [user]

type certificate
  relations
    define server: [server]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or admin from server
    define can_view: user from server

type image
  relations
    define project: [project]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or operator from project
    define can_view: [user, group#member] or can_edit or viewer from project

type image_alias
  relations
    define project: [project]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or operator from project
    define can_view: [user, group#member] or can_edit or viewer from project

type instance
  relations
    define project: [project]
    define manager: [user, group#member]
    define operator: [user, group#member] or manager
    define user: [user, group#member] or operator
    define viewer: [user, group#member] or operator
    define can_edit: manager or operator from project
    define can_view: user or viewer or viewer from project
    define can_update_state: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from project
    define can_manage_snapshots: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from project
    define can_manage_backups: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from project
    define can_connect_sftp: [user, group#member] or user or operator from project
    define can_access_files: [user, group#member] or user or operator from project
    define can_access_console: [user, group#member] or user or operator from project
    define can_exec: [user, group#member] or user or operator from project

type network
  relations
    define project: [project]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or operator from project
    define can_view: [user, group#member] or can_edit or viewer from project

type network_acl
  relations
    define project: [project]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or operator from project
    define can_view: [user, group#member] or can_edit or viewer from project

type network_integration
  relations
    define server: [server]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or admin from server
    define can_view: user from server

type network_zone
  relations
    define project: [project]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or operator from project
    define can_view: [user, group#member] or can_edit or viewer from project

type profile
  relations
    define project: [project]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or operator from project
    define can_view: [user, group#member] or can_edit or viewer from project

type project
  relations
    define server: [server]
    define manager: [user, group#member] or operator from server
    define operator: [user, group#member] or manager or operator from server
    define viewer: [user, group#member] or operator
    define can_edit: manager
    define can_view: viewer
    define can_create_images: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from server
    define can_create_image_aliases: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from server
    define can_create_instances: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from server
    define can_create_networks: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from server
    define can_create_network_acls: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from server
    define can_create_network_zones: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from server
    define can_create_profiles: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from server
    define can_create_storage_volumes: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from server
    define can_create_storage_buckets: [user, group#member] or operator or operator from server
    define can_view_operations: [user, group#member] or viewer
    define can_view_events: [user, group#member] or viewer

type server
  relations
    define admin: [user, group#member]
    define operator: [user, group#member] or admin
    define viewer: [user, group#member] or operator
    define user: [user:*]
    define can_edit: admin
    define can_view: user
    define can_create_storage_pools: [user, group#member] or admin
    define can_create_projects: [user, group#member] or operator
    define can_view_resources: [user, group#member] or viewer
    define can_create_certificates: [user, group#member] or admin
    define can_view_metrics: [user, group#member] or viewer
    define can_override_cluster_target_restriction: [user, group#member] or admin
    define can_view_privileged_events: [user, group#member] or admin

type storage_bucket
  relations
    define project: [project]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or operator from project
    define can_view: [user, group#member] or can_edit or viewer from project

type storage_pool
  relations
    define server: [server]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or admin from server
    define can_view: user from server

type storage_volume
  relations
    define project: [project]
    define can_edit: [user, group#member] or operator from project
    define can_view: [user, group#member] or can_edit or viewer from project
    define can_manage_snapshots: [user, group#member] or can_edit
    define can_manage_backups: [user, group#member] or can_edit